PHILIPPI, W.Va. — The group of seniors that will take the field for the Philip Barbour Colts this fall has ushered in the most successful era in the history of the program dating back to their founding in the 1960’s. After back-to-back quarterfinal appearances in 2023 and 2024, the Colts broke new ground last year by winning a program-record ten games and playing in the semifinals for the first time.
“I had a special group of seniors that led to that. They were part of all three teams,” said Philip Barbour head coach Nick Mayle. “They were able to host, host a quarterfinal game here at our home field and then make it to the semifinals. So it was a good progression for the program just to continue moving forward.
“We’re either a team that is going to be complacent with what has been done in the past, or we are going to continue to develop and stay hungry, work and earn everything that we want.”
While the Colts bid farewell to a large senior class, several of their top playmakers return in 2026. The PB offense will once again be led by Robbie Jones. Now a junior, Jones tossed 19 touchdown passes in 13 games last season. Jones may get the opportunity to tote the ball more after bulking up in the offseason.
“He’s done really well. He has put in work in the weight room. He has put on some weight. So now you can look for him to maybe run the ball a little bit more. He can make any throw that we need him to make. And he is super-intelligent. So we’ll be able to put as much on him as we want to.”
“He just keeps getting smarter and stronger,” said Philip Barbour senior RB/LB Mason Jones. “He has been working out all the time. He has been leading the team more and more each year and it has been great to see.”
Jones will be joined in the backfield once again by senior Landyn Carpenter. In his first season playing organized football since middle school, Carpenter rushed for 1,726 yards and 18 touchdowns.
“It was the time of my life, the first time playing high school football. I regret not playing my first two years. I hope we can do it again,” Carpenter said.
“They hand you the ball. You’ve got your guys blocking. Everybody loves you when you score a touchdown. It is just a heck of a time.”
“We don’t talk about stats around here or anything like that,” Mayle said. “But he did his job. The guys up front made the holes. He did what he needed to do with the ball.”
Graduation losses on the offensive line will create a number of opportunities for new starters to step in.
“We have two returning offensive linemen, Remi Mullenax and Kaleb Corder,” Mayle said. “Leon Brown is going to step in. He played a little bit for us on both sides last year. He is going to be a senior, so he has been developing over the last couple of years.”
As a junior, Mason Jones averaged just under ten tackles a game and there’s a reason that the linebacker finds himself in the right spots to make plays.
“He watches a lot of film,” Mayle said. “He is not an overly big guy as far as height goes. But he is a thick kid. He is about 190 pounds and he can move. He just has a nose for the football.”
“I just try to watch film every night for a few hours,” Jones said. “In the offseason, I go back and look at formations that they run, what is more run-heavy and what is more pass-heavy.”
If the Colts can take one more step up the ladder in 2026, they will find themselves playing December football and preparing for a championship game for the first time.
“They know what it is like to practice in the snow and practice during Thanksgiving week,” Mayle said. “All of that was new territory. Now, it is no longer new territory. We’ve just got to keep moving forward.”